I see that DNC Chairman Terry McAullife’s winning streak continues- the Kentucky governorship has gone to the GOP for the first time in 32 years, and with 82% of the votes counted in Mississippi, Haley Barbour is leading Ronnie Musgrove 53%-45%. And before the Democrats try to claim they were not attempting to make this an election a referendum on Bush, let’s look at what the NY Times has to say about that:
Mississippi Democrats criticized Barbour as a “Washington insider” as President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top GOP officials came to campaign for him.
In Kentucky, party activists argued that a vote for Chandler would tell the White House its economic policy is a failure.
State Republican Chairwoman Ellen Williams said Bush helped swing the race in western Kentucky, a conservative Democratic area which both campaigns said was crucial. Bush “lit that district on fire,” she said. “The people in that part of the state are in line with Bush’s conservative values.”
The WaPo filed this report:
President Bush invested his own political capital in yesterday’s two gubernatorial elections a year before he will face the voters himself. Bush, Vice President Cheney and other Republican luminaries raised money for Barbour and Fletcher. Saturday, in a final push, the president appeared at rallies in Mississippi and Kentucky with the two GOP hopefuls at his side.
National party organizations also weighed in. The Republican Governors Association (RGA) donated $4 million to Barbour’s campaign, more than any candidate for governor of Mississippi had ever raised. The Democratic Governors’ Association (DGA) countered by giving Musgrove $2 million. The two campaigns spent almost $18 million, triple the previous record for a gubernatorial contest in Mississippi.
All together now- the reason Democrats are losing is because voters don’t know what Democrats stand for and they just have to do a better job selling themselves. Snicker. Plus, this is the South, and everyone in the South is racist and therefore votes for the GOP. Why, Gosh Durn IT, some Dixiecrats became Republicans! The Democrats are being punished for being so good about Civil Rights by all those damn racist rednecks! If only the Republicans did not have a stranglehold on the Klan vote- why, then Democrats would win in the South!
Personally, I blame the losses on too few appearances from Nancy Pelosi and other national Democrats. That and the fact that they simply did not print enought ‘Bush = Hitler’ or ‘Bush Lied, People Died’ bumper stickers. Maybe they should have promised to rescind the tax cuts more, or tried harder to pin Enron on Bush. I thought they were really getting somewhere with the faux yellowcake scandal. Let’s give Joe Wilson and David Corn a couple more weeks!
Seriously, though. I predict the Democrats will have more success once they get their real message out- withdrawal from Iraq (they dont really want everyone to leave- they just want the UN in! It’s that simple!), raising the minimum wage to $10.00, giving the UN veto rights on the military and national security, abortion on demand, ending the death penalty, adding layers of regulations on landowners to appease the environmental lobby, raising taxes (cuz you don’t pay your ‘fair share’), killing school choice, increasing handgun controls, insisting all southerners are racist, enabling all illegal aliens nationwide to have driver’s licenses, and all their other issues. Once Democrats get the message out- why- the sky is the limit! They might win…. Boston and Manhattan.
*** Update ***
The VodkaPundit comments.
mark
What was interesting in Kentucky is that the demoicratic candidate campaigned against Bush and the national republican leadership, blaming them (and tax cuts) for the shape of the economy.
It didn’t work. Back to the drawing board, I guess.
M. Scott Eiland
I’m beginning to think that Chris Muir is right, and that Terry McAuliffe *is* a mole for Karl Rove. Could someone actually intending to help the Democrats possibly screw them over as badly as he has? I suggest that Republicans everywhere demand McAuliffe be removed as DNC Chair–the Democrats will cling to him out of sheer spite as they tumble into the abyss his “brilliant” strategies have led them to.
Kimmitt
It continues to amaze me that McAuliffe has a job.
That said, none of the five Democratic frontrunners has advocated a premature pullout from Iraq; the minimum wage will likely increase by a quarter or two over a Dean Presidency, to follow inflation; your UN comment is absurd on its face; we have a policy disagreement on abortion; I come from Illinois where more men on death row have been exonerated than executed; I like to breathe clean air and drink clean water; things cost money; we have a policy disagreement on vouchers; Dean gets an ‘A’ from the NRA; the South has many bigots in it; and if we must have idiotic laws which create a situation where we have a huge immigrant population, then let’s take sensible steps to reduce the damage they do on the road.